The Oil Spill's Impact on Gulf Coast Oysters

• Date: 01 November 2010
• Author: Mike Freeman, Stephen Gidiere, and Mary Samuels

11-2010 NEWS & ANALYSIS 40 ELR 11097

The Oil Spill’s Impact on

Gulf Coast Oysters

by Mike Freeman, Stephen Gidiere, and Mary Samuels

Mike Freeman, Stephen Gidiere, and Mary Samuels practice environmental law and

litigation at Balch & Bingham LLP in Birmingham, Alabama.

e Gulf region leads U.S. commercial oyster production,

accounting for nearly 70% of total national catch.1 Louisiana

itself produces 40% of the oysters consumed in the United

States, more tha n any other state.2 As oyster habitats have

disappeared and diminished along the Ea st Coa st, sea food

processors in the Chesapeake Bay area have been purchas-

ing oysters from Gulf Coast harvesters to meet East Coast

demand.3 Considered one of the last and best hopes for pres-

ervation, conservationists have been working for several years

to preserve and expand the Gulf ’s oyster beds.4

It is not just the oil released over the 87-day life of the spill

that is a concern—the solutions employed to dissipate and

degrade the oil also have ha rmed and continue to threaten

the immobile, delicate oyster. For example, in early July,

more tha n 60% of the oysters in one of the most produc-

tive bays in Louisiana were reported dead as a result of the

release of freshwater from the Mississippi River in an attempt

to push oil out of Louisiana’s coastal marshes.5 Importantly,

this freshwater release killed the oysters growing on the inte-

rior of the estuaries, an area protected from the oil and chem-

icals that were washing up on the intertidal oyster beds along

the coast. In addition, there is much concern that oysters are

being killed from the chemicals in the toxins used to disperse

the oil.

e timing of the Deepwater Horizon disaster makes it

even more damaging, as it coincided with the peak spawning

season for oysters. Oysters reproduce by releasing eggs and

sperm into the water. e eggs and sperm mix, and the fertil-

ized eggs form hard-shelled larvae that eventually attach to a

1. Michael Hill, Oil Spill Puts the Gulf O yster Industry on Ice, F W,

June 22, 2010; David Muller, Louisiana Ocials Try to Allay Fears of Oil-

Spoiled Seafood, N O CB, Apr. 30, 2010.

2. Jason Mark, Disaster on the Half Shell, T P, August 2010; Mela-

nie Patten, Canadian Oyster Sales Booming After Gulf Spill, T H

S, July 17, 2010.

3. Aislinn Maestas, From the Gulf to the Bay, Oyster Industry Sufers, N’ W-

 F’ M C, July 21, 2010; Cory Nealon, Oil Spill ere a

Disaster Here?, D P (Newport News, Va.), Aug. 6, 2010.

4. See Steve Gorman, Spill Could Devastate U.S. Gulf Coast Oyster Reefs, R,

May 8, 2010; Scott McMillan, e Reef Makers, N C, Sum-

mer 2010.

5. Jerey Ball, Fresh Water Aimed at Oil Kills Oysters, W S. J., July 20, 2010.

Oysters are an integral part of the Gulf of Mex ico.

ey clump together to act as coral reefs that pro-

tect, shelter, and form vital nursery grounds for

other aquatic species. ey act as natural water puriers, l-

tering anywhere from 25 to 50 gallons of water per day in

the bays and estuaries where they dwell. Often referred to as

the “backbone of marine life,” oysters fall near the bottom

of the food chain, providing nourishment for all types of sea

life, including birds at low tide. Due to their proximity to

shore, oyster shell reefs (living and dead) also help reduce

shoreline and wetla nd erosion by forming natural ridges on

the sea oor that minimize waves and tidal impact. And last,

but certainly not least, oysters are a gastronomical delicacy

whether done Rockefeller or Bienville style or just fresh,

open, and on the ha lf-shell. In the Gulf Coast region, this

unique and valuable resource generates approximately $131

million in annual revenues.

Undoubtedly of critical importa nce to the Gulf ’s marine

life, oysters a re highly sensitive to the quality of their sur-

roundings. Oy sters feed by ltering nutrients out of seawa-

ter. Because they are immobile creatures, if the water around

them is contaminated, oysters will collect these chemicals

and pollutants, making them one of the most vulnerable spe-

cies threatened by the BP oil spill disaster.

From April 20 through July 15, 2010, approximately ve

million barrels of oil gushed out of a deepwater oil drilling

well in the Gulf of Mexico. e oil penetrated the water col-

umn and formed a thick oil slick that eventually reached

the shores of the Gulf C oast, contaminating everything it

encountered—including the world’s last, la rgely intact net-

work of oyster reefs. Because of the presence of oil in the

water, state health departments closed the oyster seasons

along the Gulf Coast, resulting in economic losses for oyster-

men and other businesses not only in the Gulf region, but

across the United States.

Authors’ Note: e authors are members of the rm’s Gulf Coast Oil

Spill Legal Team and represent oyster bed owners in litigation related to

the Gulf oil spill. e authors wish to thank Emily Crawford, a third-

year law student at the University of Alabama School of Law, for her

contributions to this Article.

Copyright © 2010 Environmental Law Institute®, Washington, DC. reprinted with permission from ELR®, http://www.eli.org, 1-800-433-5120.